My quintessential summer recipe: tomato confit spaghetti! Sweet cherry tomatoes slowly cooked in olive oil with shallots, garlic, and black pepper until soft and caramelized. Tossed with spaghetti and topped with parmesan cheese and basil, it doesn’t get simpler or more delicious than this!
tomato confit spaghetti – the details
What better way to end a week in June than with this tomato confit spaghetti?! It’s quintessential to summer in my book for two reasons – one, it’s beyond simple and allows for maximum time enjoying the evening outdoors and two, it highlights the very best summer ingredient…tomatoes!
You’ll cook the tomatoes “confit style” which means low and slow in a large amount of olive oil (I like to use a 7qt Dutch oven for this). All you need is a shallot and some garlic, plus a generous seasoning of salt and black pepper, to create the most fragrant infused oil for the tomatoes to caramelize in.
They become soft and juicy with an intensely rich tomato flavor.
Once you get the tomatoes going, the process is completely hands-off, apart from the occasional stir to move the tomatoes along. When they’re almost done, just cook your spaghetti and toss it all together. Easy as that!
The magic is in the rich, garlicky oil combined with the bright, acidic, sweet tomatoes. It is HEAVEN.
A quick note on the oil…you may find that there is a little extra than needed to toss with the spaghetti. You can save this for another use if you’d like. It’s essentially tomato & garlic infused olive oil at this point which you can imagine is delicious on just about anything!
The final touches? Parmesan cheese (and lots of it), fresh basil, and more black pepper to finish things off. So simple and so perfect.
If you’re looking for more summer tomato recipes, here are a few to try:
Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho with Grilled Bread
Herby Brown Butter Chicken & Farro with Burst Tomatoes
Whipped Feta with Roasted Tomatoes
Tomato Confit Spaghetti
the simplest tomato confit spaghetti with basil & parmesan cheese
servings: 4-6
Ingredients
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 ½ lbs cherry tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- kosher salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- ¾ lb spaghetti
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- fresh basil leaves, for topping
Instructions
- Add the olive oil, cherry tomatoes, garlic, and shallot to a 5-7qt Dutch oven over medium heat. Stir to coat. Bring the oil to a simmer. Once bubbling, reduce the heat all the way low. Cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Once the tomatoes are almost done, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a heaping pinch of salt. Drop the spaghetti and cook until al dente.
- Drain the spaghetti and transfer it to the tomatoes. Stir well to combine. Taste the spaghetti and season with more salt if needed. Plate the spaghetti with the parmesan cheese (be generous) and fresh basil over top. Crack more black pepper to finish.
- If there’s extra oil in the pot after plating, save this for another use (it’s delicious spooned over just about anything or cooled down and used in a vinaigrette).
Notes
The key to this dish is seasoning well with salt and freshly cracked black pepper since the rest of the ingredients are so simple. You’ll want to make sure to season at all three of these stages: to the tomatoes, to the pasta water, when tossing the pasta (to taste).
shop the dish: tomato confit spaghetti
This sounds outrageously good—can’t wait to make it!